Cora Stickney Harper (1859–1914)
Cora Stickney Harper was an influential early resident of Boynton Beach, whose generosity and spirit has left a legacy to this day.
She graduated from Wellesley College in 1888; on the back of a photograph from Wellesley College's archives, she is described as having great joy of living and being witty and fun. This must have been tested when her father, a cashier of the Great Falls National bank for 35 years, was murdered by a bank robber in 1897. She was left very well off.
In 1901, she married Charles T. Harper in Savannah. Charles T. Harper was an agent for the F.E.C. Railway and Southern Express Companies at Boynton, with a large, sprawling family of many sisters, nieces, and nephews. His youngest sister was a full 23 years his junior. He was frequently referred to as popular in the newspaper. It is implied in an article published in the Ocala Evening Star that that the ceremony was performed after only a single meeting the week before; the details of the courtship are unknown. We do know that in the Savannah Record of Marriage, she stated her age as 25 to his 23, when in fact she was 42 years old.
After moving to Boynton, Cora quickly became involved in local activities. She was one of the founders of the Boynton Woman's Club in 1909, and she and her husband purchased the land at the south-east corner of E. Ocean Avenue and SE 4th Street. They gave the Woman’s Club a low interest mortgage. Click here to view some of the property documents.
She also arranged for the young people in Boynton to go to high school in West Palm Beach in 1911, there being no high school in Boynton, and only one accredited high school in all of Palm Beach County at the time.
Cora also became a charter member of the Daughters of the American Revolution Evergreen Chapter in Miami in 1909.
On the U.S. Census of 1910, when she was 51, she claimed to be 42 years old.
In 1913, the Harpers moved to Fort Pierce, where she founded the Aiseehatchee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in early 1914.
Cora died on 1 November 1914, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. After her death, the DAR Ft. Pierce chapter was renamed the Cora Stickney Harper Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, in her honor.
Cora's last will and testament gave money to two sisters in law and nieces if they finished their education and $2,000 to Wellesley College Students’ Aid Society. Click here to view the document.
Cora's husband, Charles T. Harper, remarried Stella Wright in 1916 and they moved to Homestead as the railroad agent. While serving as the town's mayor, he and his daughter were killed when a speeding ambulance hit their car.
His second wife Stella, was an outspoken proponent of women's rights. She repeatedly attempted to be hired on the police force and served on the city council in Homestead.